Guiding means for suspended railway cars



June 5, 1934. G. D. FISH 1,961,753

GUIDING MEANS FOR SUSPENDED RAILWAY CARS Filed Feb. 17. 1931 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR ATTORNEY June 5, 1934. s 1,961,753

GUIDING MEANS FOR SUSPENDED RAILWAY CARS Filed Feb. 17, 1931 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR Patented June 5, 1934 UNETE- STTES PATENT GFFICE GUIDING MEANS FOR SUSPENDED RAIL- WAY CARS Application February 17, 1931, Serial No. 516,462

18 Claims.

Among the objects of my invention are to provide a new and improved system of co-acting guiding elements between a stationary monorail supporting structure and a car thereon. Another object of my invention is to provide means to prevent uncertain lateral swaying of a suspended monorail car. Another object is to provide guiding means between such a car and its cooperating stationary railway supporting structure.

More specifically, this object is to provide a guide rail on one of these two cooperating elements and a suitable relatively movable guide engaging member on the other such element. Other objects of my invention have relation to preventing lateral swaying due to wind pressure on the cars, and placing the guiding elements so they will not interfere with entrance to and exit from the cars on either side and so they will operate effectively and advantageously on curves at difierent speeds thereon. All these objects and other objects and advantages of my invention will become apparent on consideration of a limited number of specific examples of practice in accordance with the invention, which I will now proceed to disclose in the following specification. It will be understood that this disclosure has relation principally to these particular examples of the invention and that the scope of the invention will be indicated in the appended claims.

Referring to the drawings: Figure 1 is a trans verse section of the rail supporting structure; Figure 2 is a side elevation, looking at a right angle as compared with Figure 1; Figure 3 is a horizontal section, taken on the line 33 of Figure 2 looking in the direction of the arrows; Figure 4 is a vertical section taken on the line 44 of Figure 3, looking in the direction of the arrows; Figure 5 is an elevation of the guide rollers and associated supporting structure carried with the car; Figure 6 is a top plan view of the same; Figure '7 is an elevation of a structure alternative to that shown in Figure 6; Figure 8 is a transverse section on a curve, but corresponding otherwise to Figure 1; Figure 9 is a horizontal section on a curve but corresponding otherwise to Figure 3; and Figure 10 is a vertical section on the line l0-10 of Figure 9.

A row of towers 11 is provided, each carrying an upper cross arm 12, to the ends of which are welded a row of longitudinal girders 13, each supporting a track rail 14. By means of the goose necks 15 and track wheels 1'7, the cars 16 are supported on the track rail 14. Attached along the sides of the towers 11 are guide rails, indicated generally by the reference numeral 18, and the arms 19 project from the cars 16 and carry rollers engaging these guide rails 18.

Each guide rail 18 consists of a series of longitudinally extending rolled steel angles, positioned as shown in Figure 4, each with a hanging flange 18. Rolled steel channels 83 extend between the towers, and to each said channel the horizontal flange of the corresponding angle guide 18 is weld ed. The guides 18 and associated channels 83 are supported between the towers by hanger rods 9.

Each tower comprises a central transverse web plate 24 and two side flange plates 23 welded to the edges of the plate 24 and strengthened along the edges by the angles 25.

The guide rails and associated structural elements are assembled at the shop in ladder-like lengths to extend between consecutive towers 11; Transverse bars 81 and diagonal bars 82'have their ends welded to the horizontal flanges of the angles 18 as shown in Figure 3. To these angle guide bars 18 the channels 83 are welded, as mentioned heretofore. The guides 18 and the supporting channels 83 project on the sides of the tower and meet half way across its side faces, as shown in Figure 3. The ends of the ladder like guide sections are supported on the angles 84 which are welded to the tower plates 23. Each guide section is welded to the angles 84 at one end, but left with a free horizontal sliding connection at the other end; this constituting an expansion joint.

Looking along the direction of normal forward travel for a car or a train or cars, there is atiached a roller supporting structure 19 under the bottom of the car 16 at the left, as shown in Figure 5. This structure is also half way of the length of the car. Engaged to this structure by a pivot with vertical axis 87 is an intermediate member 96, which, in turn, is engaged by a pivot with horizontal axis 86 to the arm 88, which extends as a flat horizontal plate under the hanging flange 18 of the guide rail 18. Upstanding from this plate 88 are studs 90, each carrying a drum or roller 91 on ball bearings 93 and faced with tires 92 of rubber or other suitable material. There are two longitudinal rows of these rollers 91, one row on one side of the hanging flange 18', and the other on the other side, as seen in Figure 6.

Rising from the plate 88 is the bent arm 94, which carries on its end the rubber tired roller 95 on ball bearings. The roller 95 rides on the top horizontal face of the guide angle 18 and supports the plate 88 on the guide. The rollers 91 engage along the side faces of the hanging flange 18 of the guide and hold the plate-arm 88 against lateral displacement, but permit it to move freely lengthwise along the guide 18.

The flexible connection between the car body 16 and the plate-arm 88 permits a degree of angular displacement between these members but holds the car body 16 against swinging laterally, as suspended on the rail 14.

An alternative guide roller connection is shown in Figure 7, viewed in the same aspect as Figure 5. Here in Figure '7 the plate 88 has engagement with the guide rail 18 through the roller 95 and the se;s of rollers 93 in the same way as in Figure 5. On the bottom of the car 16 there is attached a multiple leaf spring 19 with its free end pivotally connected to the plate 88 at The normal forward direction of travel of the car being as viewed in Figure 7, the plate 88 is carried along with the car and the transverse connection through the spring 19' and associated elements holds the car body 16 against lateral displacement, except as permitted by this spring 19. This spring may be made very stiff so as to permit only a slight lateral displacement. On straight track, the normal adjustment of the spring 19 will be such that the car will hang freely on its supporting rail 14, without any lateral thrust due to the guiding connection shown in Figure '7. But wind pressure may tend to make the car swing to one side and this will be resisted by the device shown in Figure '7, except that the springs 19 will yield slightly and diminish the effect of shocks; also this spring 19 will give accommodation to any slight unavoidable irregularities in the alignment of the guides 18.

for an average normal speed on a curve, and for the angular position of each car at this intermediate speed the guides 18 will be positioned so there will be no lateral thrust on them. However, lateral thrusts will occur if there is a wind blowing transversely at this speed, or if the cars proceed at lower or higher speeds. As will be seen readily in Figtu'e 8, this construction on a curve involves putting the guides at different levels. The towers 11 will be much closer together on curves than for straight track and the guide frame work sections shown in Figure 3 will not be used. Instead, each guide 18 will be supported and strengthened by an angle member 104 which will lap slightly over the guide with a weld between the overlapped edges. This construction is shown in plan in Figure 9 and in section in Figure 10. It facilitates making the guides 18 suitably curved for the curvature of the track.

The guide rail structure consisting of the member 18 and associated parts is located slightly below the generally horizontal plane of the car bottom. Thus, on sharp curves to the right, the ends of the car may overhang the guide. In this way the construction may be such that on a curve 1 the ends of the car will barely clear the towers.

This makes it possible to keep the projecting tower arms 12 reasonably short.

On straight track, if the guides were not provided, the tower arms would have to be considerably lengthened to permit lateral swinging of the cars, due to wind pressure and it would be necessary to allow a considerable factor of safety. If a car were swinging due to wind pressure, it would necessitate cautious approach to a station platform, or the provision of some special guiding means at the entrance to the station platform. By providing a continuously engaging guiding means, as I have shown,-the car is kept at a definile position laterally on straight track and on curves, so that the rail supporting structure can be designed without excessive clearance and with reference to a fairly certain load, assuming the permitted wind pressure required in engineering specifications.

Another advantage in having the guides slightly below the bottom of the car is to facilitate entrance to and exit from the car through left hand doors, when this is required. In such a case, the guide will lie just below the edge of the station platform. Also in cases where it becomes necessary to make a long stop between stations, perhaps due to some accident, left hand doors can be used for exit from the cars and the guide frame work which is seen in Figure 3 may serve as a kind of skeleton platform in this case. The employees and even the passengers can use doors near towers and proceed on the guide frame work the necessary short distance to the towers and climb down them, or they can be helped otherwise down from the guide frame work to the ground.

For suspension railways with the cars hanging freely and without lateral constraint, the safe overhead clearance for vehicles on the ground is determined at the level of the bottoms of the cars, but when there is no train overhead this is an imaginary line and there is always the danger that a truck driver with an extra high load will happen along just before a high speed train reaches the place, and that the train will collide with the top part of the truck load. According to my invention, the guide rails, always in place, give a definite overhead clearance limit and any truck load that can be driven under the guide rails is safe against being top-swiped by a car or .f

a train of cars.

I desire to point out the advantage of the system of guide rollers shown in Figures 6 and '7. It will be seen that I employ two rows of rollers with a single flange between them. While it would economize in the number of rollers to have only one row of rollers lying in a channel, it will be seen that as the car tended to swing slightly one side or the other, the rollers would engage now on one side, now on the other, quickly reversing their direction of rotation. The great angular acceleration to which the rollers would be subjected in this way would impose severe stresses, and these are avoided by having the two sets of rollers, so that during forward travel of the car, each roller rotates, if at all, only in one direction.

It is well known that many structures exposed to wind pressure have their strength determined by that factor, instead of by their normal load. In other words, when the structures are made strong enough for wind pressure, they are more than strong enough for their normal useful load. The towers and tower arms shown in Figures 1 and 8 must be designed strong enough for the excessively high wind pressures on asuspended train of cars as stipulated by conservative engineering practice. If there were no guide rails and if the cars were free to swing laterally under lateral wind pressure, they would swing out to a considerable angle and the whole lateral wind pressure on the train would be applied at the tops of the towers to produce a lateral bending moment on the towers, the moment product being the full height of the towers by the full lateral wind pressure. By the provision of the guides just below the car bottoms, a considerable fraction of the lateral wind pressure is applied at the guides with a much shorter moment arm measured up from the bases of the towers. Hence the moment arm for such part of the wind pressure extends up only as high as the level of the car bottom, and all that part of the towers above the guides and the tower arms can be made of somewhat lighter construction. In other words, the towers must be made strong enough for an excessive lateral wind pressure, and by providing the guides, a considerable fraction of the wind pressure is applied to the towers with a short moment arm, and the remainder, being applied at the tops of the towers, necessitates only a lighter construction, as compared with applying the entire wind pressure at the tops of the towers.

This advantage in the use of the guides is enhanced when it is considered that under excessive wind pressure the forces are far from steady, and the wind, coming in gusts, may happen to be timed to build up a pendulum-like vibration of the cars, so that at the extreme of their swing the lateral component of forces on the towers would be greater than the mere wind pressure at any one instant. By the use of the guides, any such tendency to build up a pendulum-like swing by the cars is prevented, so that no lateral stresses greater than the wind pressure need be considered.

I claim: a

1. In combination, an overhead supporting structure with a track rail thereon, a car suspended on said rail, a horizontal guide rail supported at a level slightly below the car bottom and slightly outside one side wall of the car, a guide member engaging said guide, and an arm projecting from the car at the middle of its length and carrying the said member.

2. In combination, an overhead supporting structure with a track rail thereon, a car suspended on said rail, guiding means consisting of two members, namely, a horizontal guide rail and a guide element engaging said guide rail, one of said members being mounted on and carried by the car at a point midway between the ends of the car and at a level near the bottom of the car, and the other said member being permanently fixed in relation to said supporting structure at the same level.

3. In combination, an overhead supporting structure with a curved rail thereon, a car suspended on said rail, a corresponding curved guide rail supported near the level of the car bottom, a guide member engaging said guide rail, and an arm projecting from the car and carrying said member, said track rail and guide rail having the relative lateral position on straight portions of the track, so that the car hangs without lateral thrust through the guide, and on curved portions so that the car will hang at the proper angle for an intermediate velocity without lateral thrust through the guide.

4. In combination, an overhead supporting structure with a one-way track rail thereon, a car suspended on said rail, a horizontal guide rail supported at a level near the car bottom, a guide member engaging said guide and an arm projecting from the car and carrying said member, said guide rail being at a higher level and displaced somewhat to the left on right hand curves, and at a lower level and displaced somewhat to the right on left hand curves.

5. In combination, an overhead supporting structure with a track rail thereon, a car suspended on said rail, a guide rail extending generally parallel with said track rail, a carriage with rollers engaging said guide rail and a flexible connection between said carriage and the car adapted to hold them in definite lateral spacing, but with a degree of freedom of angular movement between them.

6. In combination, an overhead supporting structure with a track rail thereon, a car suspended on said rail, a guide rail parallel with said track rail and at a lower level, a guide wheel engaging said guide rail and a flexible connection between said wheel and the car adapted to resist lateral pulls and thrusts, the axis of said wheel being vertical.

'7. In combination, an overhead supporting structure with a track rail thereon, a car sus pended on said rail, a guide rail parallel with said track rail and near the level of the bottom of the car, a guide wheel engaging said guide rail and a flexible connection between said wheel and the car adapted to resist lateral pulls and thrusts, the axis of said wheel being vertical.

8. In combination, an overhead supporting structure with a track rail thereon, a car suspended on said rail, a guide rail parallel with said track rail and at a lower level, a guide member engaging said guide rail and a single connection between said member and the car located midway of the length of the car and adapted to resist lateral pulls and thrusts.

9. In combination, an overhead supporting structure with a track rail thereon, a car suspended on said rail, a guide rail parallel with said track rail and at a lower level, a guide member engaging said guide rail and a spring connection be-- tween said member and the car adapted with limited yield to resist lateral pulls and thrusts.

10. In combination, a row of towers, an overhead track rail supported thereby, a parallel guide rail at a lower level attached to the sides of the towers, and a single member flexibly attached to the car at a point midway of its length and engaging said rail.

11. In combination, a row of towers, top cross arms thereon, two track rails supported on the ends of said arms, and guide sections between the towers at a lower level, each section comprising two guide rails, one on each side, with cross braces between them, and brackets on the towers to support the ends of the guide sections, each such section having a sliding engagement with the bracket or brackets at one end.

12. In combination, a row of towers, top cross arms thereon, two track rails supported on the ends of said arms, and guide sections between the towers at a lower level, each section comprising two channel bars, one on each side, angle bars outside the channel bars and each with one flange horizontal and welded to the corresponding channel bar and the other flange hanging down, and cross braces between the said channel bars.

13. In combination, a row of towers, top cross arms thereon, two track rails supported on the ends of said arms, and guide sections between the towers at a lower level, each section comprising two bars, one on each side, supporting ledges on the towers for these ends, with a sliding connection at one end for expansion, cross bracing between these bars, and guide rails carried by said bars and meeting consecutively beside the towers.

14. In combination, an overhead supporting structure with a track rail thereon, a car suspended on said rail, a guide parallel with said t-rack rail, said guide comprising a depending flange, a plate thereunder, rollers with vertical axes carried by said plate on each side of said flange, and a lateral pull and thrust connection between said car and plate.

15. In combination, an overhead supporting structure with a track rail thereon, a car suspended on said rail, a guide parallel with said track rail, said guide comprising a depending flange, a plate thereunder, rollers with vertical axes carried by said plate on each side of said flange, also a roller with horizontal axis above said guide and carried by said plate and a flexible lateral pull and thrust connection between said car and plate.

16. In combination, an overhead supporting structure with a track rail thereon, a car suspended on said rail, a guide parallel with said track rail, two sets of rollers, one set engaging said guide on a lateral thrust, the other on a lateral pull, a member carrying said rollers, and a pull and thrust connection between said member and said car.

17. In combination, a row of towers, respective top tower arms, a track rail carried on the ends of said arms, acar suspended on said rail, aguide rail on the sides of the towers at a lower level, and a lateral pull and thrust connection midway of the length of said car between said car and guide rail, whereby lateral wind pressure on the car is transmitted to the towers partly at the level of the track rail and partly at the level of the guide rail and the bending moment in the towers is reduced as compared with transmission of the lateral wind pressure entirely through the track rail.

18. In combination, a row of towers, respective top tower arms, a track rail carried on the ends of said arms, a car suspended on said rail, a guide rail on the sides of the towers at a level slightly below the bottom of the car and a lateral pull and thrust connection between the bottom of said car and guide rail, whereby on curves the car bottom may in part overhang the guide rail and the car may be entered or left through side doors on the side of the towers without obstruction by the guide rail.

GILBERT D. FISH. 

